V&I are up at his family’s place in upstate New York for his grandma’s 75th birth­day party. He grew up on the lake, on a small lane of houses, in the mid­dle of the woods. we got in around 1:00 a.m. last night, and all I could see were stars in the sky. this morn­ing, I woke up to, not only a house full of peo­ple, jab­ber­ing away at each other, but also the sun shin­ing through the trees and the sweet, fresh breeze com­ing through the win­dows. it reminds me of Door County. It’s been over 20 years since I was in Wis­con­sin, but the smell brings all mem­o­ries flood­ing back. it’s beau­ti­ful up here, despite what the locals may say. I love the woods, I always have, and it makes me won­der how much of a city per­son I really am.

V is out run­ning his 13-mile “long run” right now, and I’m left to fend for myself. I’m try­ing to be as help­ful as I can, where I can, but it seems to be a ball of man­aged chaos. Appar­ently that’s to be expected.

We’re here for four days, and then we’re going to NYC for four more days. this should be a fun trip. I feel like pig­ging out every­where I go. OMG.